Sunday, January 3, 2016

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

***DISCLAIMER***
The following review is entirely my opinion. If you comment (which I
encourage you to do) be respectful. If you don't agree with my opinion
(or other commenters), that's fine. To each their own. These reviews
are not meant to be statements of facts or endorsements, I am just
sharing my opinions and my perspective when watching the film and is
not meant to reflect how these films should be viewed. Finally, the
reviews are given on a scale of 0-5. 0, of course, being
unwatchable. 1, being terrible. 2, being not great. 3, being okay.
4, being great and 5, being epic! And if you enjoy these reviews
feel free to share them and follow the blog or follow me on
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The Man from U.N.C.L.E. – 3 out of 5

My familiarity with the old 1960’s television series that
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was based on is insanely limited.I pretty much knew of its existence, that
James Bond’s father Ian Fleming had a hand in its conception, that it starred
Robert Vaughn and David McCallum and what its title was.I never saw a single episode or even knew
what it was about beyond that it involved spies.However, when I saw the Comic-Con trailer for
the film adaptation and saw that it starred Superman and was directed by Guy
Ritchie I was all-in and pretty excited for the film.I had planned on seeing it in the theater but
never found the time to see it—because I was busy with my own spy work.However, it recently hit the home media
department and I was able to finally catch it…and it was okay.

Don't do a Grey Poupon joke, Ron. Don't do a Grey Poupon joke. Don't do a Grey Poupon joke.

"Excuse me...do you have any Grey Poupon?"

DAMN MY EYES!!!

In 1963, a super spy extraordinaire; Napoleon Solo (Henry
Cavill) is forced to team with a very talented KGB agent named Illya Kuryakin
(Armie Hammer).What could possibly
happen that would force the CIA and the KGB to work together, you might be
asking yourself?Well, it seems that a
young girl named Gaby (Alicia Vikander)—who was recently rescued from East
Berlin by Solo—has an uncle that mysteriously vanished and may be in the hands
of a shady criminal organization that is looking to get their nasty hands on
nuclear weapons.In order to protect
both countries, Solo and Kuryakin team together and work with Gaby in order to
save the day and protect the world.

I'll be honest...a small part of me was hoping that explosion in the backgroundwas Batman coming for Cavill. I'm really excited for Batman v Superman.

Just the presence of Jared Harris in the cast madethis film worthy of its score of 3 out of 5.

For the most part, U.N.C.L.E. isn’t a bad film but it’s
definitely not one of Guy Ritchie’s best films—but it’s clearly not the worst
one he’s done either because this film isn’t Swept Away.The film offers up some fun and very clever
action pieces and there are the usual Ritchie standards of some killer music
choices that always compliment the scenes and some slick editing.Additionally, Cavill is very charming and fun
to watch as Solo and Vikander is giving off a great performance, too.However, the film does have some issues that
kept it from being something better and just ended up making the film just
alright.

Cavill has a jawline that can bring a population of a small town to its knees.

The story to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. isn’t the most engaging
thing and does come off like a way too standard and cliché spy affair.Matters aren’t assisted at all when it felt
like the story was dragging too much.The story never gets boring but it didn’t have that exciting or engaging
feel that so many of Ritchie’s films have.The man really knows how to tell a story and has always had creative
ways of revealing exposition that never felt like you were about to sit through
the obligatory boring part of the story.Sadly, with U.N.C.L.E., Ritchie’s usual slick presentation just isn’t as
prevalent so there were times when the story dragged and just got too boring
for me.

The plot twist of her being a robot that uses men in order to free herself felta bit familiar, as well.

Finally, I wasn’t too thrilled with the performance of Armie
Hammer.He wasn’t terrible in his role
and he definitely had some fun moments with Cavill’s character of Solo but his
performance wasn’t commanding attention the way Cavill’s did or other actors in
the feature like Vikander or even Hugh Grant and Jared Harris.Too often, Hammer’s performance and accent
came off a tad cheesy and his wooden portrayal, at times, hurt the chemistry
between himself and Henry Cavill.The
two work well together but, at the same time, never truly felt like they were
working the best together and it often felt like Cavill was carrying the two.Adding in a bland and very stiff performance
only went against the already shaky chemistry the two had.

Their chemistry was so unreliable that Vikander's eyes went wide!

Actually, I'm being told she's wearing sunglasses. But still, they weren't the best together.

My expectations for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. weren’t insanely
high but I was pretty excited to see it because I am a big fan of Ritchie’s
work and the trailer did make the film feel like a sweet spy film.In the end, the film wasn’t as good as I had
hoped for but wasn’t as bad as it could have been.Overall, with its occasionally boring story
and weak performance from one of its leads but having that counteracted by some
fun action and great performances from the rest of the cast, the film proved to
be a decent watch that was ultimately a work of serviceable entertainment.

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About Me

I'm a geek, an atheist (who is also an ordained reverend), a peanut butter and jelly enthusiast, a man who shares the same name with a popular character from "Parks & Rec" and feels he can't live up to the awesomeness of the fictional character, was proudly banned from Reddit, an occasional Shakespearean performer, and a stand up comic.
Have any questions, recommendations or wanna share any theories on various movies? Email me at RevRonMovies@gmail.com and I'll talk about them on my new Q&A segment!